


momentane

by millihelenic



Category: Original Work
Genre: Earthquakes, Gen, Language, Linguistics, Poetry, Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-05
Updated: 2012-06-05
Packaged: 2017-11-06 23:48:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/424555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/millihelenic/pseuds/millihelenic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>we are etymologies, words crumbling / and reforming, morph by morph, into scaffolds of syntax, the skeleton / of a lexicon rebuilt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	momentane

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gyzym](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gyzym/gifts).
  * Inspired by [we were emergencies](https://archiveofourown.org/works/405828) by [gyzym](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gyzym/pseuds/gyzym). 



> gyzym's ["we were emergencies"](http://archiveofourown.org/works/405828) is one of those fics that tears you up (in both readings of the word); it's, as Wanderlast said when she recommended it to me, a cathartic read, one that eats at you but leaves you happy. It hit close to home for me in many, many ways, and I don't think any comment or review that I could have written would have captured all that. So here's a poem instead, readable from Natasha's POV, also readable as a standalone. 
> 
> gyzym, if you're here, thank you for that beautiful and inspiring story. ♥ And thanks to Cally, Liz, and Rachelle for betaing; I don't think this would be half as good if Cally hadn't picked at it. :P
> 
> Also, I typically don't post original work on a public site, but I wanted to be able to link it back to "we were emergencies". If you want to quote, use, or remix this in any way, please, please ask my permission first. Thank you.

we are etymologies, words crumbling  
     and reforming, morph by morph, into scaffolds of syntax, the skeleton  
 of a lexicon rebuilt.  we determine our semantics.  we determine  
     how we survive, and what we forget about emergencies, darling,  
           is that they are nouns: they are single points in time  
               derived from actions,  
     from something  
               emerging.  
  even the most devastating earthquake  
            lasts only a few minutes, is only an epicenter, is not  
an end.  we still have  
               the aftershocks.  we still have the aching hurt of bones  
     creaking back together, the unfamiliarity  
          of your hand over mine, the soft thrill  
   of recovering _yes_.  we are not  
                                 emergencies.  we are  
the seeing, the merging.  we are  
                              possibilities.


End file.
